Ruth
Overview
The book of Ruth celebrates the Lord’s sovereign rule over his people in an age marked by spiritual and moral anarchy. That the plot unfolds “in the days when the judges ruled” (1:1) points to the book’s universal relevance. This period in Israel’s history, recounted mostly in the book of Judges, is characterized by a recurring cycle: the covenant community rebels against its covenant Lord, often through idolatry; the Lord consequently judges his people, often by handing them over to a foreign oppressor; the covenant community sometimes responds by crying out to the Lord for deliverance; the Lord graciously raises up a deliverer, often a judge; after being delivered, the nation rebels against the Lord even more defiantly (e.g., Judg. 2:10–19; cf. Ps. 106:34–46).
As this cycle repeats, Israel deteriorates. The book of Judges thereby illustrates that, apart from the Lord’s merciful intervention, the covenant community’s chronic waywardness would imprison them to inevitable decline and eventual oblivion. Against this dark backdrop, the book of Ruth highlights the Lord’s mercy to advance his salvation purposes even when his people seem to be in moral freefall. The Lord even uses his people’s wanderings and afflictions to fulfill his promises to bless and stabilize them and to give light to those who sit in darkness (cf. Isa. 9:2; Luke 1:79; 2 Cor. 4:6).
More specifically, the narrator recounts the Lord’s providential mercy toward widowed, childless, discouraged Naomi. The story features the Lord’s loving kindness to fill bereft Naomi through the loyal love of his faithful servants, Ruth and Boaz. The book’s introduction (Ruth 1:1–5) vividly portrays Naomi’s “emptiness” (cf. 1:21) in terms of her lack of immediate and long-range security. A famine afflicts Bethlehem (“house of bread”), which incites Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, to leave Judah and sojourn in Moab with Naomi and their two sons. In Moab, tragedy strikes Naomi when Elimelech dies, followed by her two sons, who each had married a Moabite woman. Naomi is thus left without a husband or sons in a society in which legal and economic security depend upon having a male family member. She interprets her suffering as evidence of divine disfavor and despairs of any prospect of being restored (1:11–13, 20–21). Her despondent emptiness constitutes the plot’s central predicament.
On the whole, the plot progresses from famine, death, and emptiness (Ruth 1) to feasting, life, and fullness (Ruth 2–4), all on account of the Lord’s sovereign kindness. The curtains close on scene 1 with Naomi’s bidding the Bethlehemite women to call her “Bitter” (1:20; cf. ESV mg.). Naomi’s speech sets the stage for the Lord’s restoration of her. Indeed, the curtains close on scene 4 as the Bethlehemite women bless the Lord for restoring Naomi’s fortunes by giving her baby Obed, her “redeemer.” The storyline thereby exposes Naomi’s miscalculation in scene 1: the Lord is not against her but is actively working on her behalf to bless her even beyond what she can see.
Although sometimes the narrator describes the Lord’s direct action to restore Naomi (e.g., 4:13), mostly the Lord’s mercy is recounted as it is mediated through his obedient servants. The main human instruments by whom the Lord resolves Naomi’s predicament are Ruth and Boaz. Ruth is Naomi’s widowed, Moabite daughter-in-law who clings to Naomi on the road from Moab to Bethlehem (1:14–17). Boaz is a relative of Naomi’s deceased husband, Elimelech. These two faithful servants embody self-sacrificial, covenant kindness. Boaz secures the redemption right to marry Ruth and perpetuate the name of the deceased in Naomi’s family. The Lord grants conception to Ruth so that she bears a son, Obed, the heir by whom Naomi will once again experience lasting nourishment and legacy.
The book’s final verses expand the narrative horizon and shock first-time readers and listeners: baby Obed becomes King David’s grandfather! The Lord resolves Naomi’s bitter predicament (Ruth 1:1–4:17a) in a manner that precipitates the resolution of the entire nation’s predicament (4:17b–22). Through Obed the Lord ultimately raises up his anointed servant, David, by whom the Lord grants rest (1:9; 3:1) to the whole covenant family (cf. 2 Sam. 7:11). The book’s double ending (Ruth 4:13–17, 18–22) thereby drives home the trustworthiness of the Lord’s loving kindness to his people. He even uses their affliction to multiply their blessing. In this way the book inspires God’s people to trust his sovereign grace, even when dark circumstances seem to obscure his presence.
Title and Author
The book’s title bears the name of one of its main characters, Ruth, the Moabite widow whom Boaz marries. Ruth exemplifies covenant kindness by devoting herself to her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, to Naomi’s people, and to her God. As with most OT narratives, the book of Ruth nowhere identifies its author. Various possible authors have been proposed throughout history, such as Samuel or Solomon,1 but certain identification of the author is not possible.
Date and Occasion
The book nowhere specifies when it was written. The drama occurs “in the days when the judges ruled” (1:1), that is, the era in Israel’s history following Joshua’s death (c. mid-14th century or late-13th century BC) and prior to Samuel’s anointing of Saul (c. mid-11th century BC). The book reaches its final form, however, after David’s anointing as king (c. 1010 BC), which the genealogical epilogue clarifies by identifying Ruth and Boaz as David’s great-grandparents (4:17b–22).
But at what point after David’s anointing was Ruth written? The most common proposals concentrate on the early monarchical and postexilic eras. Regarding the former, the book’s concluding Davidic focus leads some to propose a likely compositional date during Solomon’s reign.2 In this view, the author aims to support the Davidic dynasty by confirming the legitimacy of David’s ancestry. More specifically, the author demonstrates that, although Ruth is ethnically Moabite, she fully embraces the God of Israel and his covenant people; and, although Boaz is not Elimelech’s nearest kinsman, he faithfully observes Israel’s laws and customs to acquire the redemption right. However, some prefer a postexilic milieu for the book of Ruth, perhaps in the early restoration period.3 In this view, the author is reacting to supposed excessive reforms enacted by Ezra and Nehemiah and to negative attitudes toward foreigners, particularly Moabites (cf. Ezra 9–10; Neh. 13:3, 23–29).4 Certainly a postexilic compositional date would add texture to the emphasis in Ruth 1 on “returning” to Canaan after an extended period of relocation. In sum, while both the early monarchical and the postexilic proposals yield interesting possibilities regarding the author’s specific occasion and purpose, conclusions on the matter must remain tentative. Fortunately, comprehensive knowledge of the book’s date and occasion is not required for discerning critical aspects of its purpose (cf. Overview; Theology of Ruth).
Genre and Literary Features
The book of Ruth is narrative literature. Biblical stories recount historical facts, develop fascinating characters, and illustrate principles. But above all they aim to reveal God’s character and ways by displaying his glory (cf. Ps. 145:4–9). Every biblical narrative contributes to the Bible’s metanarrative, which principally discloses God’s eternal purpose to redeem his people by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly, Ruth’s narrator renders true history with consummate literary artistry and a decidedly theological agenda.
The book of Ruth consists of a plot introduction (1:1–5), four main scenes (1:6–22; 2:1–23; 3:1–18; 4:1–12), a plot resolution (4:13–17), and a genealogical epilogue (4:18–22). The introduction and scene 1 disclose the drama’s central conflict, namely, Naomi’s multifaceted and despondent emptiness. Scenes 2–4 and the plot resolution develop the storyline, intensify suspense, bring the dramatic tension to a climactic turning point, and portray the resolution of the central conflict. The genealogical epilogue underscores the drama’s significance in redemptive-historical terms.
In terms of narrative time, the setting (1:1–5) covers about a decade, while the central drama (1:6–4:17) involves about a year (one harvest season plus about nine months). The concluding genealogy spans many generations, from Israel’s patriarchal age to its monarchical age (4:18–22). The book’s simple shape can thus be rendered:
I. Plot Introduction: Compounding Affliction (1:1–5)
II. Scene 1: Decisions on the Road Home (1:6–22)
III. Scene 2: Favor in Boaz’s Field (2:1–23)
IV. Scene 3: Risks at the Threshing Floor (3:1–18)
V. Scene 4: Redemption at Bethlehem’s Gate (4:1–12)
VI. Plot Resolution: Restoration through a Redeemer in Bethlehem (4:13–17)
VII. Epilogue: Compounding Provision (4:18–22)
The drama focuses mainly on the plight of Naomi, to whom the narrator returns at the seams between scenes 1–3 (cf. 1:6, 22; 2:1, 22–23; 3:1, 18) and concerning whom the narrator applies the drama’s chief significance (4:14–17). The composition is suffused with invocations of the Lord that highlight his power to bless (e.g., 1:8–9) and judge (e.g., 1:17), which demonstrates the narrator’s decidedly covenantal worldview. Moreover, the narrator expertly develops the book’s driving concern by employing various literary devices such as repeated words and themes (e.g., the “return” motif in Ruth 1), inclusios (e.g., the concept of rest in 3:1, 18), plot twists (e.g., the issue of the redeemer in 3:12), clear transitions delineating distinct scenes (e.g., 2:1), and a surprise ending (4:17b–22). The narrator mostly develops the book’s characters through reported speech, though the manner in which the narrator identifies and describes characters is also instructive (e.g., by repeatedly referring to “Ruth the Moabite,” the narrator highlights the extraordinary nature of this sojourner’s covenant fidelity). These diverse literary strategies demonstrate the narrator’s artistic skill.
Theology of Ruth; Its Relationship to the Rest of the Bible and to Christ
The Bible’s metanarrative begins in the garden of Eden, comes to its climax in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and culminates in the Lord’s return, when he will bring his redemptive work to consummate effect and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. The narrator of Ruth transparently tethers the book to this broader biblical storyline (cf. 1:1; 4:17b–22), thereby leading the audience to interpret its drama as one scene in the Bible’s metanarrative. Within the book of Ruth, several inner-biblical connections underscore the book’s ties to the larger biblical story. Outside the book, the Bible mentions the person of Ruth only once (Matt. 1:5), in the genealogy of “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1). Ruth’s inclusion in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, Abraham’s and David’s greater son, is fitting since her inclusion among God’s covenant people represents partial fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:3) and the book of Ruth concludes by pointing to God’s provision of David.
The following cluster of interrelated themes are particularly significant in discerning the book of Ruth’s relationship to the rest of the Bible and to Christ.
God’s Faithfulness to Fulfill His Covenantal Promises
The book highlights God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises to his people corporately and personally: to all “Israel” and to each covenant child.5 The book’s poles evoke the corporate dimension of God’s covenant work (1:1; 4:17b–22), while the central drama features the Lord’s personal kindness to fill bereft Naomi. The narrator aims to encourage the Lord’s covenant people, whose confidence in him is being tested, by showing how the Lord mercifully advances his salvation purposes amid their ordinary circumstances and afflictions. For example, in the era of the judges, when Israel has no human king, the Lord is at work to raise up his anointed servant, King David, so that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah” (Gen. 49:10; cf. 17:6). One of the Lord’s main human instruments in fulfilling his covenant promise is a Moabite widow, Ruth, a “worthy woman” (3:11; cf. Prov. 31:10) who exemplifies covenant faithfulness. That a Moabite extends and receives covenant kindness signifies partial fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to bless all the earth’s families through Abraham’s offspring (Gen. 12:1–3). The book’s storyline illustrates God’s faithfulness to deal kindly with his people beyond what they can discern in their finite, limited perspective, and it thereby calls his people to trust him, even and especially when dark circumstances seem to obscure his presence (cf. Gen. 50:20).
The Compatibility of Divine Providence and Human Agency
The book of Ruth illustrates the compatibility of divine providence and human agency, thereby encouraging God’s people to embrace a robust view of God’s sovereignty without diminishing human responsibility, or vice versa. In a book highlighting the Lord’s sovereign mercy toward those who take refuge under his wings, for example, only twice does the narrator point to the Lord’s direct intervention (1:6; 4:13). That these references occur at the beginning and end of the plot suggests that all of the intervening drama unfolds at God’s gracious direction and initiative. The narrator also more subtly points to the Lord’s providential engagement in the narrative action, such as by noting that two widows arrive in Bethlehem “at the beginning of barley harvest” (1:22) and that Ruth “happens” to come to Boaz’s field (2:3). In a variety of ways the narrator leads the audience to recognize the hand of God at work in his people’s ordinary circumstances and decisions.
Yet the narrator mostly portrays the Lord’s kindness as it is mediated through human speech and action (e.g., Ruth’s request in 3:9 that Boaz become the Lord’s instrument of rewarding her, alluding to Boaz’s blessing in 2:12). In particular, Ruth and Boaz function as the Lord’s faithful agents to fill widowed Naomi in her emptiness. At various points Ruth and Boaz take bold, decisive, even risky action in a spirit of entrusting themselves to God’s sovereign care and advancing someone else’s welfare (e.g., 3:6–18). In fact, the narrator vividly contrasts extraordinary decisions of love (e.g., Boaz’s costly redeeming act) with ordinary, pragmatic decisions of self-preservation (e.g., the kinsman-redeemer’s refusal to redeem; 4:1–8; cf. 1:14). These human decisions unfold according to God’s providence. By illustrating God’s gracious rule, the story beckons the Lord’s people to extend the same loyal love they have received from him to others, including in hard times when the Lord’s purposes seem hidden.
The Power of Covenant Kindness
A key concept in the book of Ruth is covenant kindness. The word translated “kindness” (or “loving kindness”) occurs three times: twice on Naomi’s lips (1:8; 2:20) and once on Boaz’s (3:10). This word has a rich covenantal heritage and is often used to describe the peculiar love the Lord extends to his redeemed people (cf. Ex. 34:6–7). Such covenant kindness comes to its fullest expression in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, for example, so identifies with God’s people that he empties himself for their sake, even giving his life as a substitutionary sacrifice to pardon their sins and secure their everlasting life (Phil. 2:6–11; 2 Cor. 8:9).
While the Bible features God’s loving kindness toward his people, it also enjoins God’s redeemed people to imitate him in extending kindness after his pattern. The book of Ruth in particular portrays the extraordinary impact of ordinary people’s commitment to extend covenant kindness in ordinary life. For example, Ruth the Moabite’s loyal love for her widowed mother-in-law (Ruth 3:10) expresses Ruth’s deepest commitments, foreshadows her eventual inclusion in the covenant community, and plays a vital role in Naomi’s ultimate restoration. Additionally, Boaz’s kindness toward widowed Ruth and Naomi (cf. comment on 2:18–22) is crucial to resolving the book’s central predicament. Significantly, the book’s initial subject of loving kindness (“deal kindly with you”; 1:8) is the Lord, which helps cast Ruth and Boaz as the Lord’s faithful agents. Humanly speaking, without Ruth’s and Boaz’s kindness Obed would never have been born, nor King David (4:17), nor David’s greater son (Matt. 1:5).
The Institution of Redemption
The book of Ruth describes a concrete enactment of the redemption institution. Various forms of “redeem,” “redeemer,” and “redeeming” occur over twenty times in the Hebrew.6 Redemption is the main legal mechanism that precipitates the central conflict’s resolution and formalizes Ruth’s and Boaz’s loving kindness to Naomi. In this book, the practice of redemption is bound up with kinship principles articulated in levirate-marriage legislation (cf. comment on 4:3–8).
OT redemption laws aim to support socioeconomically vulnerable Israelites. A “redeemer” is a close male relative who, among other things, acts on behalf of a family member in financial difficulty (cf. Lev. 25:23–55; Num. 27:11). More specifically, redemption legislation intends to eliminate permanent debt among Israelites, safeguard each family’s inheritance allotment, and clarify kinship responsibilities among the covenant family. To redeem a relative, a redeemer must pay a price (Lev. 25:50–52). Biblical redemption legislation is suffused with motive clauses recalling the Lord’s redemptive grace to bring his people out of Egypt and give them the land of Canaan (e.g., Lev. 25:38). The book of Ruth’s concrete illustration of the institution points forward to God’s ultimate redemption of his people through Jesus, who willingly ransoms believers “not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with [his] precious blood” (1 Pet. 1:18–19; cf. Jude 5).
Preaching from Ruth
Although some prefer expounding the whole book of Ruth in a single sermon, each chapter yields sufficient interpretive fruit for preaching the book in a four-sermon series. If handling the whole book in one sermon, one must avoid overemphasizing the genealogical epilogue’s royal interests in a manner that overshadows the book’s dominant concern to display God’s loving kindness to ordinary Israelites facing hardships in this fallen world. If handling the book chapter by chapter, one must keep in view the book’s driving concern and explain each chapter’s peculiar contribution to it.
Expositors of Ruth will be helped by discerning and employing the narrator’s various literary strategies. The narrator’s methods ought to influence the preacher’s methods. For example, the narrator frames the plot by locating it in the broader biblical storyline (1:1; 4:17b–22), which points to the importance for expositors of illuminating the book’s redemptive-historical setting. The preacher must note also how the narrator discloses the drama’s relevance to ordinary human beings in this broken, sinful world. The setting (1:1–5), for example, depicts human misery and illustrates the rapid devastation of Naomi’s life. Reflecting on the drama’s situatedness in real time and space can help expositors avoid merely reducing the narratives to a principle or a main point, a common pitfall in preaching this genre. Biblical narrators do convey principles and themes, but they do so through vividly portraying the embodiment (or lack thereof) of these principles and themes in real human experience. These representative examples illustrate the homiletical fruitfulness of attending to narrative strategies in Ruth.
The narrator’s characterization of Naomi merits special attention, particularly with regard to three matters. First, the narrator deals with Naomi’s predicament honestly, but not harshly. The narrator never demeans Naomi, even in candidly relaying her affliction (1:1–5) and petition to be called Bitter (1:20–21) and in constructing the storyline to refute her despairing interpretation of her suffering. Expositors must ask God to help them instruct with gentleness and compassion (cf. Isa. 42:1–4; Matt. 12:15–21) rather than (even inadvertently) disparaging or discouraging those among their audience with whom Naomi’s trauma and/or despair resonate.
Second, in testifying to God’s sovereign grace, the narrator nowhere minimizes Naomi’s suffering or trivializes her grief. The narrator does not portray Obed’s birth, for example, as somehow expunging any lingering heartache for Naomi related to losing her husband and two sons. Neither should expositors of Ruth handle human suffering in a simplistic, reductionistic manner as they explicate God’s sovereign grace. Third, the narrator does not imply that God always resolves his people’s predicaments during their days in this fallen world. Yes, the narrator testifies to God’s faithfulness to his people corporately and personally, but not by espousing an overrealized eschatology. For example, simply because God grants Ruth conception and restores Naomi does not mean he will similarly restore all his suffering children this side of heaven or that he always reveals his specific purposes. Indeed, the concluding genealogy confirms that certain elements of Naomi’s restoration unfold after her death. Likewise, believers will not know God’s full purposes in and through their suffering until they see him face to face. In applying the book’s resolution and epilogue, the relevant point is not “What God does for Naomi, he will do for you” in the here and now but rather “Who God is for Naomi, he will be for you.”7
Interpretive Challenges
Beyond the few instances in which the Hebrew text is difficult to translate and interpret (e.g., Ruth 2:7) or the precise referent is debated (cf. comments on 2:18–22; 4:3–8), the main areas of debate in Ruth tend to cluster around a few key questions. First, does Elimelech’s decision in famine to leave Bethlehem with his family and relocate to Moab express unfaithfulness on his part, godly wisdom, or morally neutral pragmatism (1:1–2)? Second, does the narrator characterize Naomi in scene 3 as a manipulative, reckless schemer or as a shrewd woman taking godly initiative (3:1–4)? Third, to what extent ought one interpret Ruth’s actions at the threshing floor as sexually provocative (3:6–9)? Fourth, does Ruth’s marriage proposal to Boaz (3:9) indicate that the institutions of redemption and levirate marriage are somehow interrelated during this era of Israel’s history? If so, does this interrelationship suggest that, at this time, the practice of levirate marriage applies not merely to a deceased man’s brother (as in Deut. 25:5–10) but more broadly to the nearest kinsman? The commentary below addresses these matters in more detail.
Outline
I. Introduction and Scene 1: Leaving and Returning Home (1:1–22)
A. Leaving Home: Compounding Affliction for Bereft Naomi (1:1–5)
B. Returning Home: On the Road from Moab to Bethlehem (1:6–21)
1. Deciding to Return Home: Naomi Decides to Return Home but Urges Her Daughters-in-Law to Return to Their Maternal Home (1:6–14a)
2. Deciding to Cling: Ruth Clings to Naomi, Naomi’s People, and Naomi’s God (1:14b–18)
3. Deciding to Rename Herself “Bitter”: Naomi Interprets Her Emptiness as Divine Disfavor (1:19–21)
C. Returned Home: Naomi Returns with Ruth to Bethlehem as Barley Harvest Begins (1:22)
II. Scene 2: Finding Favor in Boaz’s Field (2:1–23)
A. Ruth the Moabite Searches for Favor (2:1–3)
B. Ruth the Moabite Finds Favor with Boaz (2:4–17)
1. Ruth Finds Favor with Boaz While Gleaning (2:4–13)
2. Ruth Finds Superabundant Favor with Boaz at Mealtime (2:14–17)
C. Ruth Gives Evidence of Boaz’s Favor, Provoking Naomi to Blessing (2:18–22)
D. Ruth Keeps Finding Favor While Living with Her Mother-in-Law (2:23)
III. Scene 3: At the Threshing Floor (3:1–18)
A. Naomi Seeks Rest for Ruth with a Risky Plan (3:1–5)
B. Ruth Approaches Boaz at the Threshing Floor (3:6–7)
C. Ruth Proposes Marriage to Boaz (3:8–9)
D. Boaz Pledges Redemption but Introduces a Complication (3:10–13)
E. Boaz Guarantees His Redemption Oath with Barley (3:14–15)
F. Naomi Counsels Ruth to Wait (3:16–18)
IV. Scene 4 and Plot Resolution: Resolution at Bethlehem’s Gate and Beyond (4:1–17)
A. Scene 4: Boaz Acquires Redemption Right at the Gate before the Elders (4:1–12)
1. Boaz Convenes Meeting with Kinsman-Redeemer and Elders (4:1–2)
2. Boaz Confronts Kinsman-Redeemer about Redemption Right (4:3–5)
3. Kinsman-Redeemer Cedes Redemption Right to Boaz (4:6–8)
4. Boaz Confirms Redemption and Clarifies His Intent (4:9–10)
5. Witnesses Call the Lord to Bless Ruth and Boaz (4:11–12)
B. Plot Resolution: The Lord Provides Naomi a Redeemer through Ruth (4:13–17)
1. The Lord Grants Ruth a Son through Boaz (4:13)
2. The Women Celebrate the Lord’s Returning Life to Naomi through Her Redeemer, Obed (4:14–17)
V. Epilogue: Genealogy from Perez to David, through Boaz and Obed (4:18–22)